a voice teacher and early music fan
SCHUBERT, A MASTER OF THE ROMANTIC, CONDUCTED BY SHAW, A CONFIRMED PEDANTIC, MAKES A GREAT MARRIAGE IN THIS RECORDING.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was raised a Roman Catholic in Vienna, and as a clear-voiced choir boy and violinist, he became acquainted with the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, who was his favorite composer.
Among Schubert's vocal works are many with religious texts, most intended for service use. The majority of these, including his first 5 Mass settings, were written for specific occasions and received performances soon after being completed, but this was not the case with his Sixth Mass, which lay unperformed until a year after his death.
In his settings of the mass, Schubert took Romantic liberties, omitting words, repeating words,or even entire paragraphs, thus treating the text not as unchangeable doctrine, but as a flexable libretto to be subservient to his artistic needs. His setting made significant omissions in the Gloria and Credo texts. Some sentences are omitted in all six of his masses, leading to speculation that he dissented from such teachings as the Church's divine authority.
The G major Mass was composed in 1815, and is simple and tuneful, direct and innocent in its idiom. He wrote it in 6 days; it is a small-scaled work accompanied by strings and organ.
The Mass in E-flat major is the product of that remarkable surge of new music that Schubert produced in his final year. Musically it has two aspects: it follows traditional practise in overall shape and construction. However, we encounter, in its harmonic language, Schubert, the Romantic ,using daring chromatic digressions and frankly pictorial writing with telling dramatic effect. This is basically a choral mass, and the soloists are used sparingly.
The performance of the soloists is excellent, and who but a Robert Shaw could bring out the best of the Chorus and Orchestra? Shaw was such a genius in the art of choral performance, but fortunately for us, he left much of his work behind on several recordings. While I enjoy both of these Masses, my preference still leans to the g major. probably because of its more traditional sound.
|